Saint-Denis Mayor’s Chief of Staff Fired Over Islamophobic Comment About Veiled Poll Worker

The controversy dates back to June 20, reports France bleu, specifying that Frédéric Bonnot, chief of staff of the PS mayor of Saint-Denis, Mathieu Hanotin, had compared a veiled woman to a "bat".

During the first round of the regional and departmental elections, the RN candidate, Jordan Bardella, was filmed in a polling station in Saint-Denis facing a veiled assessor.

The image, shared in a private WhatsApp conversation of the mayor’s office, was then commented on by Frédéric Bonnot, who described the assessor as a "bat".

His remarks quickly leaked out. Frédéric Bonnot had eventually apologized: "I made the mistake of using an extremely inappropriate qualifier about this woman."

He will be replaced by David Lebon, the current chief of staff of the Plaine Commune territory, the same sources point out.